Confluxus
by Murazor
Summary: A week after defeating the outlanders who invaded the Land of Wind seeking the legendary stones of Gelel, the ninjas of the Elemental Countries find themselves visited once again by foreigners, in the form of soldiers that serve something called the World Government. This is the tale of an unexpected encounter and how it changed a world in ways both large and small.
**Prologue** _ **\- Five Shadows, Five Stars**_

Once upon a time there was a room. By every account, it was a nice room. Large, elegant, well-lit... but what really matters in our tale is not the room, but rather those who were in the room.

Because in the room there were five old-looking men, who were actually considerably older than they looked, as well as two snails, one yellow and one white.

The men were collectively known as the Gorosei, the Five Elder Stars. Together, they were the head of the World Government and their voice was that of the ultimate authority.

The snails were Den Den Mushi, the snailphones used to carry that voice to the farthest regions of the world and communicate with those who had sworn fealty to their rule.

The mood in the room was subdued, if not grim. That, by itself, wasn't unusual. The masters of the world wielded unmatched power, but keeping the world in balance was a titanic and utterly thankless job. Revolution, pirates, rebellion, natural disasters... Rare was the day in which they didn't have to deal with a dozen different situations, each complex in its own right.

But all those were largely known quantities. Dragon might dream of toppling them, but his revolutionaries were simply too weak, and some semblance of order had eventually been born from the chaos born of the last words of the Pirate King. As things stood, the World Government as an entity had little to fear.

But today... today they faced the unknown. An unknown great enough to potentially upset their precious balance for good and that was something that was to be prevented, no matter the cost. There were plans that would one day, not so distant anymore, make their control over the entire world utterly secure.

But... not yet.

And so, they all agreed, balance had to be preserved, until it could be safely discarded. To do so, they needed to know more, much more, about this latest threat and so the one chosen by mutual agreement to speak for the group turned to one of the snails.

"The line is secure in our side and we are all in attendance. If you are ready, you may begin your full report now, vice admiral Comil."

The yellow snail started talking with a vigorous voice then, "Very well, sir. To begin, I can report that criminal Haido Jekyll is reported to have died some time before my arrival. Although the circumstances are not entirely clear and the body has not been recovered, the natives are quite adamant about this point and I am inclined to take their word for it. I have also been granted personal access to the... remains of his three bountied underlings, as well as the stolen vessels, after a promise of financial compensation. As an aside, I strongly suggest that the promise be honored as soon as feasible."

"Your suggestion is noted and will be taken under consideration. Continue."

"Very well, sir. As I was saying, I can confirm the deaths of 'Thunderbeast' Ranke, 'Howler' Fugai and 'Screech' Kamira, as well as the total or partial destruction of seven of the ten class A artifacts that were reported stolen from Karakuri."

"And what of the three remaining artifacts?"

"The natives assume that they might have been destroyed during the fighting against the outlaws, sir, which seems distinctly possible considering the state in which their ships were left. It must have been quite the scrap. However, it is also possible that the artifacts might be in the hands of the swordsman Temujin, who apparently remains alive and at large."

"Who is this Temujin?"

"The fourth lieutenant of Haido Jekyll, sir. We learned of his existence shortly before the gang journeyed into the Calm Belt and since we didn't have even a decent description or know what crimes he might have personally committed, the Bounty Office decided not to issue a reward at the time."

"That sounds like an oversight that someone shall regret, but we can fix it now. Let's say... forty five millions? It is a bit much and a bit sudden for a rookie, but it ought to be enough to ensure his capture without drawing the eye of those we'd rather keep in the dark. What do you think, gentlemen?"

The speaker's colleagues exchanged some quiet words and shortly afterwards they nodded their agreement.

"It is decided, then. Forty five millions and we shall make it official as soon as this briefing ends. Continuing with this, how did this unknown survive the defeat of the rest of his crew?"

"Typical treachery, I gather. The civilians that we talked with, until the local army arrived to take charge of the situation, explained that this Temujin turned against his master and, as reward, the natives allowed him to leave in command of what was left of Haido's forces."

"Hmmm... Is it possible that those natives have the items that were stolen from us and that they are using this Temujin as a scapegoat?"

"I guess that it isn't impossible, but that seems like a question that my passengers in black can answer better than I can. Personally, I don't think so. From what we have seen, the place seems rather backwards, so I don't think they could do much with that kind of sophisticated machinery."

"Backwards?"

"Yes, sir. We have not been allowed to go far beyond the village where we made landfall, but the place looks remarkably shabby, and their soldiers do not carry firearms. Not one of them. And they are interested in purchasing some. Admittedly, it is not enough to judge such a large island, particularly because it seems that there are other, more prosperous kingdoms in this land, but... Yes, it has the feel of one of those backwards islands you sometimes find in the Grand Line."

"Interesting, but what about their ability to defeat Jekyll? That must have required some significant military power! Those criminals single-handedly destroyed several cities and repeteadly escaped the Navy!"

"Absolutely, sir. They may have no firearms, but their soldiers are haki users. All of them. Even the rank and file. And... May I ask a question, sir?"

"Is it relevant?"

"Extremely so, sir."

"Ask then and we may decide to answer."

"Very well, sir. The question is whether Sir Crocodile, the warlord, is still alive."

"That is an odd question, vice admiral, but the answer is yes. Earlier today, he reported the defeat and annihilation of the Puppu pirates in Alabasta. How is the condition of one of our shichibukai relevant?"

"Well, sir... The native troops that are keeping an eye on us are lead by one Gaara of the Sand, who is apparently rumored to be a demon and who can control sand. And this, sir, is something that I have witnessed with my own eyes and which can be confirmed by several members of my crew. He is an ability user and his power is identical to Sir Crocodile's, as far as I can judge."

Absolute silence followed. The Gorosei stood still, thunderstruck, feeling as if the foundations of their world were shaking under their feet. The speaker needed perhaps a minute to reply and when he did, his voice was noticeably fainter.

"Vice Admiral, tell us everything, down to the smallest details. Time is of no concern. You have both our attention and our interest."

* * *

While a meticulous officer told his commanders what little they had learned about this strange land found in waters long believed to hold nothing but the nesting grounds of sea monsters, the natives had already started spreading the world, with messenger hawks and rarely used radio broadcasts. Within two days of vice-admiral Comil's arrival, the five great shinobi villages knew of his presence in the coast of the Land of Wind, and within seven days the news had spread to the most distant corners of the great island.

Some reacted with indifference and others with skepticism, but there was enough interest in this peaceful outlander and the great government he claimed to represent that eventually the representatives of the Hidden Sand were forced to present Comil with invitations extended by various daimyos and potentates to visit the feudal courts of several nations. This turned into a tour across the island that lasted a number of weeks and which left the marine officer (and the Cipher Pol agents attached to his taskforce) with a great deal of information for the government, although the fact that he was never invited to visit any of the hidden shinobi villages, greater or lesser, caused no small amount of frustration.

But the fact was that the shinobi were making their own preparations for something that threatened to be as much of a paradigm shift as the foundation of Konoha by Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had been sixty years earlier. About a week after the conversation between the Gorosei and their vice-admiral, a Kage summit was arranged and, after much bickering and some outright bribery (the Hokage had to promise the Tsuchikage to try to heal his aching back, to secure his presence), the most powerful men and women of the shinobi world converged on the former hidden village turned tourist trap of Yugakure to try to adopt a common position.

In that day, Baki of Suna, representative of the Hidden Sand's ruling council and interim bearer of the Kazekage's hat, found himself addressing this daunting audience.

"Yes! They _are_ a threat and we have to face it together or hang separately! To argue otherwise is to court disaster," he growled, looking straight at the eyes of the Raikage. "It is not just their weapons, although those are bad enough already. When that man Comil met with our feudal lord, he made an offer to join them at his earliest convenience, promising all kinds of things. They might have found us by accident, but now they know we are here, they intend to stay. And that changes things."

"I don't know what is supposed to be so bad about their firesticks or how their presence changes things so much, that we should drop old enmities and band together, just because your tiny, _weak_ village feels threatened," growled the leader of the Hidden Cloud, standing up. "Some in Kumo think that there is a lot of profit to be had, taking missions from these newcomers."

"But most in Kumo don't or you wouldn't be here. Give it a rest and stop making yourself sound dumber than you are, A. You are fooling no one here," interjected Tsunade Senju.

The Raikage bristled and for a brief moment his eyes seemed to literally shoot sparks, but with a grunt he dismissed his aura and sat down.

"Now, now, Princess. That is no way for us old people to treat these young'uns," said the Tsuchikage, smirking when Tsunade visibly started grinding her teeth. "But the thing is that I agree with mister Not-A-Kage there. We all do, or we wouldn't be having this meeting. We have all heard enough bullshit in our line of work that we know that this whole business stinks. I am sure that if any of us decided to listen to all those nice promises, he or she would get help. Lots of help. Enough help to force the rest of us to go to war and weaken us all enough for this World Government to move in and gobble whatever is left. It is what Muu-sama would have done. He loved divide and conquer."

The other kages exchanged looks. That had been... unusually forthcoming for Oonoki the Fence Sitter, but the truth was that in the whole they agreed.

"So we agree. Great," drawled the recently instated Mizukage. "What do we do about it?"

"I think that what we should do in the first place is make sure that our suspicions are well founded," stated the Tsuchikage, floating up to put himself above the heads of his peers. "Suspicions and paranoia are our stock in trade, but they are not a good basis to start something like what the Sand is asking for. However, I think... I think that there is more than suspicious up the sleeves of some of us, because if there wasn't the Princess would never have agreed to fix the back that her master wrecked back in the day and I wouldn't be here. I suggest that we lay our cards on the table, ladies and gentlemen. Anybody is willing to be the first to talk?"

For a moment, no one spoke, gauging the chances of leaving themselves at a disadvantage by going first, but eventually Baki snorted and signaled one of his bodyguards to approach. She left in the table four scrolls and though no one moved to stop her, the tension in the room perceptibly ratcheted up, with the bodyguards of the kages moving subtly, seeking the best positions to retaliate against any potential attack.

"These scrolls contain information that we had kept secret about the invasion that preceded Comil's arrival, including indepth analysis of the weaponry used by the attackers, the forces they used during their raids and what information we have about certain devices that the vice-admiral's masters are apparently very interested in recovering. Not even Konoha has had access to all this information and the scrolls are neither trapped, nor coded. Are you willing to accept this?"

Tsunade Senju merely reached out with her hand and grabbed one of the scrolls, in an obvious display of trust towards the village that had attacked her own months earlier. Mei Terumi did the same after looking at one of her own bodyguard and getting a nod from the one-eyed man. Eventually, Oonoki and A did as their fellow kages, and for some minutes silence reigned as the commanders of the hidden villages read.

"This is... alarming," said the Mizukage, after a while.

"I'd say incredible, but the thing is that this explains certain anomalies that my sensors detected some weeks ago," muttered A. "We thought that it must have been a battle between demon-hosts, but the timing and the location would seem to fit with the destruction of this Gelel mine."

"Suna is willing to allow supervised access to the site, so that those who doubt the accuracy of the information might verify it with their own agents."

"Generous. The Hidden Rock accepts this offer and hopes that it will be honored."

"So does the Hidden Cloud. Now about these Gelel stones...?"

"We are not going to give up or share the few fragments we have," stated the Hidden Sand's representative, cutting the Raikage off. "We lack the means or knowledge to make new stones and, as a matter of fact, the very existence of solid state natural energy in a stable crystalline form challenges our very understanding of chakra, but this is non-negotiable. Any other questions?"

"Quite a few, but I'll wait until my analysts give me my opinion about all this," replied Oonoki. "Oh well, if we are going to be acting in good faith for the time being, I am going to go next. It is not as juicy as the Sand's intelligence, but it seems like the kind of thing that could be interesting: mister Comil can use chakra and it seems likely that he is not an unique case among the troops of this government he answers to."

That sent a ripple through the room and stark disbelief appeared in the face of the shinobi from the Land of Wind.

"That is news to us and we have had sensors keeping an eye on the outlanders, Tsuchikage. Why lie so transparently?"

"Well, I guess that either your sensors suck, you are holding out on us or the outlanders have been cagey enough about this to fool you, but I can offer _independent_ verification, so..."

"Details, please?"

"Of course, my dear Hokage! Some days ago, our good friend Comil left the Land of Wind with a sizable party, headed for the court of the Land of Earth, but decided to make a brief stop in the capital of the Land of Iron. Lord Mifune was polite enough to listen to the vice-admiral's spiel with a straight face and said that he would consider Comil's words carefully, but in return he asked for a mock duel. Probably something to do with that mumbo jumbo samurais believe in about understanding the heart of those they fight with."

"And how did you learn about this?"

"Well, the samurais didn't bother making a secret out of this and my own son was there negotiating certain matters on behalf of our village, so he was allowed to witness the duel. It was apparently a fairly beautiful thing. Lord Mifune won or the vice-admiral let him win, but the interesting thing is that during the duel he saw Comil use body flicker and some kind of chakra flow to enhance his swords. Admittedly, my boy is not much of a sensor, but there is no way that he could fail to recognize something _that_ obvious."

"And you think that the Land of Iron would be willing to confirm your tale?"

"I think so, yes. Well, that was what I could share. Who goes next?"

"My turn," replied the Hokage.

"I'll go next," said the Mizukage, exactly at the same time.

The powerful women stopped and locked gazes briefly, until Mei shrugged and with a giggle said, "Age before beauty."

The other kages tensed, fearing some kind of retaliation, but Tsunade merely cackled. "Still smarting about that thing at the casino, eh? Well, if you ever want another beating, feel free to try again. Since we are friends now, I'll even fix you afterwards and remove those crow's feet."

The face of the Mist's supreme leader turned an interesting shade of red and her hands tensed, but she replied with a nod. "Point to you," she snapped. "I guess that I am still a hundred years too young to trade barbs with one such as you. Now, what were you going to say, Hokage?"

"Lately, Comil and his embassy have been visiting the lord of the Land of Fire and it turns out that one of his officers has developed a taste for tsuki sake. Good stuff, of course, but pricey," explained Tsunade, earning amused snorts from some of the assembled ninja. Pricey was quite the understatement, really. Moon flower liquor was fragrant, smooth and almost outrageously expensive. "Luckily for him, a friendly foreign dignitary from one of those small courts that no one seems to know where to put in the map had a couple of bottles and invited him to share one. A tall, lanky fellow, with an eyepatch over his left eye."

A tall, lanky fellow waved from behind Tsunade's back, without moving his only visible eye from an orange booklet.

"To summarize, those foreigners drank one bottle, and then _the other_ ," continued the Hokage, now with an edge in her voice. Her bodyguard, still focused in his reading, didn't even react to this. "Then, they started comparing scars and our tipsy outlander got a good look at the wounds under the eyepatch. After that, he answered a few questions, drew a fairly crude map of the route Comil took to reach our coasts and stood still while one of my Yamanakas read his memories."

One of the Raikage's bodyguards muttered something profoundly unkind about the parentage of all Yamanakas, but there was now a keen interest in what was being said.

"Now, the advantages of a less than thorough interrogation and a light scan is that they think that their officer is suffering a monster headache, because he cannot hold his liquor, while the disadvantage is that we have a lot of facts that lack context and that putting something coherent out of that has given us a headache. In addition to this, the man was a lieutenant, which apparently is a rank broadly equivalent to a junior chuunin, so there are plenty of things that he simply didn't know."

"All the same, that sounds like valuable intel. What can you tell?"

"Well, for starters I can tell you that I am not handing full reports. My apologies for not being as generous as the Sand, but I want plausible deniability, just in case. I will share the maps, however. As for the intel... Well, the crux of it is that Comil is being both truthful and less than perfectly forthcoming. Our source explained that they truly belong to the military branch of a vast alliance with global reach that calls itself the World Government, but apparently they are hardly unopposed. Most places seem to only nominally acknowledge their rule, there are rumours about some kind of vast rebellion and they apparently have a serious problem with outlaws."

"Hmmm... Good news! And the bad ones. Because there are _always_ bad ones."

"Not just bad. Bad _and_ strange."

"Strange how?"

"It'll be better if you allow me to explain things in order. The explanation should answer most of your questions and anything left, we can handle at the end."

Tsunade's peers nodded or murmured their agreement, and the Hokage started talking.

"Our source gave us a fairly indepth description of the way their military forces are organized. There are apparently several hundred thousand soldiers and many hundreds of ships scattered across hundreds of outposts all over the world, with sizes that change wildly depending on the importance of the area they control. They also have about a dozen major strongholds in the Grand Line, which is their name for the equatorial ocean beyond the doldrums and the Sea of Monsters. Particularly, they have their headquarters and their greatest concentration of military power in a small island called Marineford.

"Our friend Comil used to be in charge of one of the major strongholds, G-2, and since our source was stationed there, we know decently well the forces present _there_. We are talking about twenty of their warships, some six thousand grunts and maybe one thousand officers of varying ranks, with Comil as the most powerful of them all. Although there are exceptions, rank seems to be fairly closely linked to personal combat capabilities.

"Their rank system is pretty complex, probably because they have so many troops to handle. There are _eight_ different ranks for their rank-and-file soldiery, which are supposed to distinguish troops with different levels of skill and seniority, but for our purposes the average genin could probably kick their ass. It is only their numbers and their weapons that make them dangerous. Above the grunts, however, we have ensigns, lieutenant junior grades, lieutenants and lieutenant commanders. We are assuming these officers to be chuunin level threats, since the officer we interrogated considered himself above average for his rank. The next ranks are commanders, captains, commodores and rear admirals, about whom we don't really know anything beyond the fact that Comil can be assumed to be stronger than them.

"Unfortunately, we don't know how many vice-admirals there are in the forces of this World Government, but my analysts are guessing that probably just a few dozen. In the other hand, we have specific figures for the highest ranks. There are exactly three admirals and one fleet admiral, who is the highest military authority, although he answers to the commander-in-chief, a political position that is currently filled by the previous fleet admiral.

"Now, the first truly interesting and truly odd thing is that apparently it is common knowledge that half a dozen individuals, including two 'legendary' viceadmirals, the admirals and the fleet admiral represent _personally_ the bulk of the military power of the World Government. We don't have specifics, because our source had no first hand knowledge about how this is possible, beyond bizarre rumours about the high officers all having strange powers, but the lieutenant was adamant about this point."

If the description of the scope of the threat they faced had been received with grim resignation, _this_ sparked off intense discussion that was abruptly stopped when Tsunade punched the table hard enough to crack the dense wood.

"There is more. Wait until I am finished, please. There is much more you will want to know before we can talk in earnest."

"In addition to the military forces I've just described, there are various local armies that answer to the lesser governments under the umbrella of the World Government. For the most part, these don't seem to be used for transnational matters and it seems unlikely we will face these forces if it comes down to conflict, but we should keep their existence in mind.

"Unsurprisingly, they also have an intelligence apparatus, which includes covert operations teams with roles equivalent to our ANBU organizations. There are apparently eight such teams based in various different locations across the world. Their scuttlebutt says that there are several members of Cipher Pol 2, one of these teams, hiding within Comil's expedition, but we lack confirmation.

"The last military force that the World Government can call upon is a group known as the Sichibukai, the Seven Warlords of the Sea. These are seven powerful corsairs who receive a pardon for past crimes in exchange for their subservience and assistance in the struggle against piracy. Their loyalty is regarded as less than stalwart, so rather than forcing them to integrate with regulars, they are allowed to act more or less on their own in the waters of the Grand Line, until they overstep the terms of their pardon. As a result, the roster of this group is somewhat fluid.

"Nevertheless, we cannot ignore them. We must assume that we will face them if a conflict happens and since we got frustratingly little in the way of hard data about them, learning more about these Seven Warlords should be one of our priorities. As it is, all I can tell you is that they are said to collectively represent one of two forces that allow the World Government to preserve their hegemony and that each and every one of them has a fearsome reputation. One of them is said to be the greatest swordsman in the world, another is said to have beaten an army more or less on his own and that kind of thing. Even accounting for exaggeration, my analysis team thinks that we should consider them S rank threats, until we can prove otherwise.

"And that is the bulk of what we learned about their strengths," finished the Hokage, before looking at each of her peers. "Now, any questions?"

"A fair few, Princess, but I'd like to hear anything you have about their _weaknesses_."

"My thoughts exactly, Tsuchikage."

"The Sand also would like to know this."

"Personally, I am more interested in knowing whether our fears are well grounded."

"Weaknesses first, then. The main one would be that they have been struggling for years against rampant piracy, ever since a world famous pirate lord claimed during his execution to have hidden a legendary treasure somewhere in the Grand Line, which has resulted in literally thousands of pirate crews squaring off against the World Government and each other in the race for this treasure. Currently, there exist four great pirate lords who pretty much control the seas in the other side of the world, in spite of their lack of unity.

"In addition to this, there is some kind of burgeoning revolutionary movement that is led by a man known simply as Dragon. There are all kinds of absurd rumours about this man floating around, but we learned only one certain fact. He is the most wanted man in the world and they offer a truly _absurd_ amount of money for his head. We probably want to know why.

"In regards to the Mizukage's question, I cannot offer an answer. Most of what I've said is extrapolation built upon scraps of evidence and mostly second hand evidence, at that. I think that there is reason to be concerned, but nothing definite enough to decide upon a course of action. We really need to learn more, before we commit."

There were some more queries, but Tsunade was only able to answer a few of them. Eventually, even the Raikage stopped asking after getting an admission of ignorance and a shrug for the third time in a row, and she was able to move on to the last part of her intervention. She gave to the others around the table copies of the crude map that the lieutenant had drawn for Kakashi. The other kages didn't need long to understand the implications of what they were reading.

"This is not very encouraging. The scale is accurate?"

"As far as we know, yes. While it was a rush job, he seemed to know what he was doing."

"So when we leave our shores, the closest lands are..."

"To the south, towards the Grand Line, at a distance equivalent to travel from Suna to Kumo. To the north, even farther away. And most of that through monster infested areas. It _is_ pretty daunting," conceded Tsunade. "However, it is not impossible. With the right provisions, any properly trained jonin could undertake such a journey with a decent chance of making it to their destination, and a joint effort can only improve those odds"

Oonoki mumbled something and his gaze focused again on the map, while the Mizukage started talking.

"If the Hokage is done now, I'll add what litle I have to offer now," said the leader of the Hidden Mist, without waiting for any kind of assent from the older woman. "The first thing that I want to say is that the name of this World Government is not unknown to me. Its servants are the villains in the legends about Suijin Hoshigaki, the founder of clan Hoshigaki, who is said to have first come to the Land of Water three or so hundred years ago escaping from evil men who sought to enslave him."

"What!?"

"If you want confirmation of this, check any old clan records your villages happen to keep from that time and the rise of the Hoshigakis. For that matter, have your agents check the theaters in the Land of Mist. The plays about the Half-Fish Lord remain fairly popular to this day. There was even talk of making him appear as a supporting character in one of the Princess Gale movies, before that whole business in the Land of Snow!"

If the scowls in the faces of the other kages were a good indication, there would be checking and double checking. And chewing out of various subordinates would likely ensue, if the words of the Mizukage proved accurate.

"Of course, those legends are no good as a source of intel and the details they give are so ghastly that I am inclined to dismiss them as propaganda spouted by a sore loser. By all surviving accounts, Suijin Hoshigaki was _that_ and a pitiless brute, even by the standards of the warring clans. Nevertheless, I want fresh information about them that doesn't come from the lips of their soldiers, just in case," commented Mei with a grim smile, before opening the scroll that the Sand had given away.

"Other than that, I only have a piece of advice to give to the representative of the Hidden Sand: do not sell the wrecks of the vessels your forces destroyed during the invasion."

"May I ask why?"

In answer, the Mizukage produced a small piece of greyish rock with a metallic shine to it and passed it to Baki, who regarded it with a frown.

"Make your sensors check if there is something in those wrecks that resonates to chakra in the same frequency as that material. Reading these descriptions, I think that this might just be the case. If it turns out that I am right, we can talk more about the matter then."

Baki arched an eyebrow in a mute attempt to coax an explanation, but Mei Terumi replied with silence and an impish smile. With a sigh, the representative of the Sand nodded his acquiescence and handed the stone to his bodyguards for safekeeping.

"Seems that it is my turn, now," said the Raikage, just as attention had started to drift his way. "Sadly, I have nothing to say. We have had to be discreet in our info gathering and I can only confirm some of the information provided by the Hokage. I have nothing new to offer."

The other ninjas exchanged glances, but it was the eldest of them who dared to voice what was passing through all their heads.

"Well, that's just typical," scoffed the Tsuchikage, earning a baleful glare from the musclebound goliath sitting to his left and making the tension in the room increase exponentially. A's reply only marginally decreased it.

"You are not going to goad me into a fight, oldtimer, so give it a rest. The outlanders haven't even visited our territory yet. At this point, all of you have more and better intel than we do, and I guess that if my people can confirm that what has been said here is the real deal I owe you lot.

"But I am not convinced that we are in danger. There might be risks in this, but there are also huge opportunities. It is too soon to be talking about alliances or war preparations or any of the things some of you have mentioned. I am not letting anyone hoodwink me into ruining the good prospects of my village with a war that isn't needed.

"That said, I am on board with the idea of getting more and better info. To be honest, even if you hadn't proposed that here, Kumo would probably have arranged some kind of mission. If you want to foot part of the bill, so much the better."

The others around the table had listened with rapt attention. This time it was Tsunade who spoke first.

"I had a feeling that you had something in mind before coming here. What do you propose, Raikage?"

After that, the haggling began in earnest. For the time being, the Hidden Cloud would not commit to anything beyond the fact-finding mission, but was willing to sign secret neutrality pacts with all the other villages in the interim, with all the usual clauses: ninjas of each village would be discretely instructed to avoid the use of lethal force, unless strictly required by a mission contract; semi-free transit; assassination missions against targets of other villages would be discouraged through a severe price hike and enough red tape to drive an army of bureaucracts to despair...

After hammering out something palatable for all the parties, the kages started discussing the makeup of the team that would be sent to the lands beyond, as well as the logistics required to take them there. After discussing and discarding various options, the Raikage made a frustrated comment that put them in the right track.

"This would be _much_ simpler if we could convince Genbu to cross the Sea of Monsters."

"Genbu?" asked the puzzled representative of Hidden Sand.

Surprisingly, the answer to his question was provided by Tsunade, rather than the Hidden Cloud delegation.

"The records of your village probably call it Shimagame, the Island Turtle. The personal summon of the first Raikage, the Kame Sannin. It hasn't followed anyone into battle in more than fifty years, since its summoner fell in the Battle of the Three Kages, along with my grandfather, but it is still in good terms with the descendants of the first A. Could it really swim across those waters?"

"Hmmph... He certainly _could_ , but the thing is that he won't. He is fine with Kumo using his shell as a secret fortress, but he doesn't like being bossed around. If we try to convince him, he'll probably just ignore us and take a nap for a month or three."

"Hold that thought, because it is certainly worth a try and I might just know the right man..."

The discussion moved on to other topics and continued well into the night. Possible contact methods, pay, equipment and, most important of all, the composition of the team. Names were proposed, discussed and discarded, until only about two dozen very prominent, very scary names were left on the table. Leaving a final vote on the composition of the team for the next day, there was some quick conversation about lesser topics, such as the possibility of one of the lesser villages becoming the catspaw of the outlanders.

Fortunately, there was no great risk of that. With the five major villages forming an united front, most would be cowed down and do whatever was demanded of them. Even Taki would probably toe the line, after its recent troubles, and as for Ame...

Well, as the Tsuchikage put it, what were the chances of that old paranoid Hanzo agreeing to play second fiddle to _anyone_?

* * *

Two days after the leaders of the ninja world agreed to work together in the face of the unknown, the Gorosei had a gathering of their own in their usual meeting place in Mariejois. Though the day was lovely, particularly for the often foggy Holy Land, the world leaders didn't particularly care. One of their number had made a proposal for dealing with the unexpected situation and after the customary debate, they put it to the vote.

"Yes, of course"

"No."

"No. Not until the Pacifista project is finally ready for deployment, at the very least."

"No. Too soon."

"I find that your points have some merit and I will keep them in mind the next time that we vote about this topic, but as things stand... No. The motion is rejected with four votes against and one for."

The lone supporter of the proposal gave a shallow nod, acknowledging his defeat, but the scowl in his face plainly showed what he thought of the result of the vote. He even started stroking his moustache, as was his wont when he felt profoundly cross with something.

"Fine, fine. If this blows in our faces, though, I will feel free to remind you four that I warned you and you chose to ignore my opinion."

"Of course, old friend. Facts are facts, however, and we simply cannot spare an admiral and I do not even know how many thousands of soldiers for any real length of time, much less the months it would take to pacify that land."

And they all knew that that most likely was an optimistic timeframe. Comil's initial reports had soon been proven to be too conservative by half. The land hidden in the Calm Belt had turned out to be larger and far more densely populated than expected. And not quite as backwards as initially reported, either. The reports sent by the CP5 agents in the vice-admiral's taskforce had made that much clear.

The operatives had also offered the single bright spot in the whole mess so far when they had managed to determine, with a fair degree of confidence, that the ability user with the power to control sand must have eaten a _paramecia_ type devil fruit, rather than a logia like Sir Crocodile. In spite of his youth, this Gaara character had quite the dreadful reputation and there were plenty of rumours floating around about him, his personality, his powers and his past, but something that was consistent across most versions of the tales was that he used sand as his shield and armor, rather than anything about turning his body into sand.

It was odd to find two devil fruits with powers so similar to each other, but there were some other examples. And any explanation that dispelled the heart-stopping possibility of dealing with the power to replicate devil fruits was something to celebrate, although the elders had decided to wait for the celebration until the definite confirmation of the theory.

Hopefully, that would happen soon enough with the re-deployment of the CP9 agents not yet involved in the Water 7 operation.

"Well, if there is nothing new and none of you has any new suggestion, I suggest that we wait until there are further developments and move on. Shall we get started with the situation in Alabasta?"


End file.
